[ime-api]Add Some Background about Chinese Input Methods in a Mobile Platform

Hi, all.

Here's some suggestions about the background part of the spec.

1. In section 2.1.3, the spec mentions the layout of the input method in mobile phone or tablet platforms very briefly, and takes the English keyboard or Japanese keyboard as an example. Is it possible that we say some more about composer into this part?

[cid:25c025cb-cc74-4485-ba10-e2f04887f042]

fig1 Pinyin Keyboard


[cid:9489d69a-e4b6-480b-9533-89618fb00c27]

fig2 Bihua Keyboard

I think it's very important to tell the difference between Phonetic Composer and Radical Composer in mobile platforms, given the fact that we also have phonetic keyboards(e.g., Pinyin keyboards) and radical keyboards there. In Fig1, "pinyin" keyboards use Phonetic Composer, and Fig2, we can see that radical keyboards should use Radical Composer.

2. I hope the T9 Keyboard(Fig3), which is very popular among Chinese input method producer, could be added to section 2.1.3. In addition, I think handwriting keyboards(fig4) should be put into this section as well since it has a large population of users in mobile devices compared to PC.

[cid:9565ed86-8d13-419f-a49e-902d9aa6f549]

fig3 Pinyin T9 Keyboard


[cid:ae12e5f1-a354-4257-86bd-36243dc00e19]

fig4 Handwriting Keyboard

3. In section 2.2, we can find the concept of selected clause. I would like to say some more about this if you don't mind. T9 keyboards are widely used because the screens of mobile devices have limited space[e.g., ios7], and we should notice the problem of duplicate characters here. For example, the candidate character "米" and "你" are input by the same code "64". That's why we provide a clause-select window to help the users to select the clause for converter. The red zone of Fig5 shows a clause-select window.


[cid:a77c5a47-4837-461d-8430-6766bb080f4e]

fig5 Clause-select window



Best Regards,
GuanQun Zhang
Desktop Input Method Department
Sogou Inc.
China P.R.



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Received on Thursday, 19 December 2013 10:53:41 UTC